Minutes

MINUTES FROM MEETING OF INKSPOTS, APRIL 26, 2015

Members Present:  Ines, Christina, Leslie, Betsy, Bay, Judy, Beverly, Asandra, Virginia, Arnold, Karen B., Rosemarie, Elizabeth

Members Absent:  Monica, Karen S., Tiger Huang, Colleen

It was decided that the Theme/Title for the November 2015 show will be Inklings and the date will be November 6^th for the opening reception.  Ginny will find out if the gallery will be available for us to use in December as well.

VIP reception:  it was decided to have only one large spectacular reception which will include the people we designate as VIPs.  We will also upgrade our reception to include champagne and an upgraded menu as well as create a coherent theme for the food and décor.  Leslie, Elizabeth and Beverly will coordinate the efforts for the reception committee.  We will not use valet parking at this reception but will instead wait until our 10^th anniversary.  Ines requested we purchase Freixenet (only about $7.99) sparkling wine and all bring one bottle also of white and red to the reception.

We will also need to find people willing to bartend (not us).  Ginny and Betsy will see if their grandkids are willing and available to be servers and bartend.

Mail Chimp will be utilized to create a master list of people we want to invite that we will have for on-going purposes.  This list is able to contain up to 1,000 names.  It is also possible to design an invitation from Mail Chimp.  Christina Altfeld volunteered to input names and e-mail addresses.  Everyone should begin to compile their list immediately and send to Christina by June 1st.

Ginny mentioned that there is a possibility that Donna Granata will host a panel discussion of the inkspots that would coincide with our November show.  We could host the Afterglow at 643 Project Space and have it catered by the Mexican restaurant nearby on the Avenue if that works out.

It was suggested that we hold a drawing the evening of our reception for someone to win a complete set of one of our folios.  The winner must be present to win and we would do the drawing at 7pm.  This information will be included in our card and email announcement as a draw to get more people to attend. All agreed this was a good idea.  Betsy will head this up and it was established that $1,500 was the value of our portfolio for public relations purposes.

It was suggested that we use an image from the Folio for our postcard invitation. We will use Mail Chimp to send out a “Save the Date” notice.  Karen Brown will design our postcard.  She will also create a history to frame and a handout with that info which will include a picture of each member.

Arnold, Christina and Karen Schroeder will do the installation of the artwork in the gallery.  Karen Brown will re-do the graphics for the “Sandwich Sign.”  Bay will do labels for the show.

Weather permitting, we will open up the back patio and have a fire in the fire pit which Martin will take care of.  Ginny will patch and paint as well as do clean-up after the reception.

We would like to have classical guitar music for the reception and someone needs to find a person who can play for us.  Bay and Ines will look into a musician.

Gallery sitting – sign up will be on the inkspot blog as usual.

Bio Book – if you wish to update your bio, please send to Karen Brown with any updates.

Marketing – Asandra and Rosemarie will handle marketing for Ventura and Santa Barbara respectively.  Bay inquired about sending out a press release as opposed to only information for newspaper’s calendars.  Bay offered to write the press release to see if we can get our show reviewed.  Leslie will look to see if the Ojai newspaper still puts information in regarding artists and we will also try to get an article in the Ventura Breeze and Ventura Star.

It was voted on that the theme of our Folio will be “Alpha & Omega.”  Judy and Rosemarie will head the Folio committee and will send out specifications for image size, etc.  The Folio will not be bound book-style this year but instead be in a box.

Treasurer’s report:  Judy did not bring exact figures with her to the meeting but said that approximately $3,000 was in our kitty.

Next meeting:  Leslie will host the next meeting around the first week or two of September.